diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d563a2614c36f55e02d4de43a61b5c6a1ff662ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+[submodule "submodules/JCTools"]
+	path = submodules/JCTools
+	url = https://github.com/JCTools/JCTools
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index c25e9dc9784084c0e5e1174c15eecd27cb82e1e5..e2a4a58d0c83b72bab37fab1fc8ab1e97daac171 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@
 			<version>17.0</version>
 		</dependency>
 		<dependency>
+<!-- 			clone and install the following project to your local maven repository: https://github.com/JCTools/JCTools -->
 			<groupId>org.jctools</groupId>
 			<artifactId>jctools-core</artifactId>
 			<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
diff --git a/submodules/JCTools b/submodules/JCTools
new file mode 160000
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..74477eaa00d1c9efe693bd86b705f3ee5aa57b67
--- /dev/null
+++ b/submodules/JCTools
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit 74477eaa00d1c9efe693bd86b705f3ee5aa57b67